HTC U.S. President “Very Satisfied” With Initial One (M8) Sales

Is the HTC One (M8) a success? It’s probably too early to tell, though some analysts are already trying to judge its success. A new report that measures Web traffic from Chitika recently suggested, but does not conclude, that sales are off to a slow start — far slower than sales of last year’s HTC One M7.

There’s a huge difference between this year’s launch and last year’s, though. The One (M8) is still an exclusive in Verizon Wireless stores, and it’s only available online from AT&T and Sprint, so it won’t technically be available completely “at retail” until April 11. That means that Web analytics from Chitika aren’t really telling the full story. HTC America president Jason Mackenzie recently took to Twitter to offer some feedback on the report, and how HTC feels about sales so far.

“Important note: M8 doesn’t launch until Apr/11 w/ full retail,” Mackenzie tweeted this week. “Contrary to report, we are very satisfied w/ initial results.” So, while Chitika suggests that the One (M8) may already be a flop, HTC is actually happy where sales already are, and clearly expects them to pick up once the One (M8) is available in AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint stores, in addition from all of HTC’s other retail partners, like Best Buy. The firm also notes that there’s still plenty of factors remaining before we can be sure of how the HTC One (M8) is performing in the market.

“Despite the muted news for the week-old One M8, the combined HTC One usage share can reasonably be seen as good news for HTC in terms of transitioning its user base over to the latest generation of smartphones,” Chitika said. “Additionally, given the context that AT&T and Sprint are still largely ramping up their sales efforts for the One M8, the long-term success of the flagship smartphone is still very much up in the air.”